Bright Angel Trail

Bright Angel Trail is a hiking trail in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, that descends from the South Rim to the Colorado River through a series of switchbacks. Along the way, you pass rest areas with toilets and shaded sections, while the vegetation shifts from dry scrub at the top to green pockets near the stream.

Indigenous peoples used a path along this natural fault line for centuries to reach water in the valley below. In the late 19th century, a prospector widened the route before the National Park Service further improved and maintained it for visitors.

Early travelers valued this route because it followed a natural fault in the rock where fresh water could be found below. The rest house at Indian Garden still stands today among cottonwood trees, recalling the Havasupai garden that once grew in this shaded spot along the creek.

The descent requires less effort than the return climb, so you should only go as far down as you can comfortably walk back up. The first rest house sits roughly one hour below the rim and offers a good turnaround point for shorter hikes.

The rock walls along this route expose layers from different eras, with the oldest formations at the bottom nearly as old as Earth itself. Some hikers notice fossil traces in the upper limestone sections left by ancient sea creatures that lived here long before the canyon formed.